This time a year ago, I would never have considered there to be a concern for racism in English football. Would you? The fact that you are reading this means that, unfortunately, like many others now, I do.
The current season has brought a very dark cloud upon the incredibly high profile English Premier League in terms of racism, as the topic of countless conversations for us as football fans have been the two infamous incidents, and we all know what they are: with the unique mountain of media coverage on Luis Suarez, Patrice Evra, John Terry and Anton Ferdinand, it has been hard to get away from.
Without repeating the well-documented facts and opinions which accumulated due to the racism accusations, if you need reminding here is where we currently are: Luis Suarez served his 8-match ban given to him by the F.A (after of course being charged for racially abusing Patrice Evra) and John Terry, stripped of the England captaincy, faces a court hearing after the 2012 European Championships this Summer to determine the outcome of Anton Ferdinand’s accusation and any possible punishment for the Chelsea skipper.
Even though many fans (and neutrals) will have joined Liverpool and Chelsea in the clubs’ controversial defence of their players, it is very disappointing that the English game is even seen to be related to racism.
Racism is a very sensitive and concerning topic. It is sad to see that it is still an issue in our multicultural modern-day society where many different ethnicities make up our communities, issues like those I mentioned have occurred-especially as footballers are role models in the eyes of children and young people.
I’m sure you remember the racist and monkey chants that black English players suffered from Bulgarian fans in a Euro 2012 qualifier in the Eastern European country last year. I can also imagine that many of you are aware of Mario Balotelli being subject to abuse whilst growing up and starting his career in Italy. ‘Super Mario’, on his debut for Lumezzane, came on aged 15 to nutmeg an experienced opponent, only then to become subject to racial abuse from the embarrassed player’s fans. Balotelli also had bananas thrown at him in a racist manner whilst playing for Inter Milan. Surely no English resident or football fan will want to fall into the same bracket as this.
In addition, there have been lower profile (but equally concerning) incidents that have taken place this season: Whilst at Everton, Spurs’ Louis Saha received a racist tweet from someone who accessed the account of another person without permission. Saha retweeted the message, labelling the sender as a ‘disgrace’ and an investigation subsequently followed.
In January, Oldham Athletic’s Tom Adeyemi was visibly upset on the turf at Anfield during an F.A Cup clash with the Merseyside club after allegedly being racially abused by a fan in the stands. A 20 year-old man was arrested and later released on bail in connection with the accusation. The incident could not have come at a worse time for Liverpool, given the Suarez case.
Additionally, Chelsea fans were reported to have been chanting in a racist manner on a train back from Norwich in late January after facing them in the Premier League.